


take my hand and together, we'll walk off the earth

by marvelleous



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-22
Updated: 2016-12-22
Packaged: 2018-09-10 21:48:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8940730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marvelleous/pseuds/marvelleous
Summary: people live, and people die. most people don't do it over and over again.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [14hpgirl19](https://archiveofourown.org/users/14hpgirl19/gifts).



> written for the philinda secret santa 2016 for 14hpgirl19, rachel  
> prompt: philinda +the avengers  
> inspired by: long live by taylor swift  
> i hope you enjoy!

it is true, that they were destined to be together.

it is true, that the world was never going to make it easy for them.

it is true, that maybe they will enjoy the ride.

and it is true, that at the end, they would not trade it for anything else.

 

 **one** like gods they sat upon their thrones, and watched the lives of mere mortals waste away

 

They did not live upon a great mountain, looking down upon the men that toiled in the fields. Nor above the clouds, beyond pearly gates, controlling the fates of those on earth. They did live an eternal life of luxury, their every last want and need fulfilled; like kings, like gods. But gods they were not. And their time too, would soon come to an end.

 

And the beginning of the end, starts with two lovers, like some believe the world began.

 

They were the embodiment of strength and loyalty.

 

His name was Phil, and hers was Melinda.

 

And this is their story.

 

***

 

Their tale begins like any other, from the first breath they take upon this earth. Phillip is born in the north, during the hottest days of the year. While the lands are often covered in snow, tree branches bare and frost in the air, his arrival comes at a time when the crops are dying, the water drying. His parents barely have enough to survive on themselves, but they make do. Melinda is born in the east, and her world from birth is one of brightly coloured silks and the smell of rich spices. She is groomed to be the perfect bride as soon as she can take her first steps and speak her first words and basically sold to the highest bidder as soon as she is of an age to marry.

 

They are born into an average families, live average lives, and die average deaths. But it is the life after death where the real story begins.

 

***

 

They are both servants of the masters, two of millions upon millions of lost souls caught in a place between death and a new life. There are tall ones and short ones and fat ones and thin ones. There are people of all shapes and sizes and colours and beliefs. Those who did good deeds and those who sought only to harm others. All those whose lives have ended, only to end up here.

 

Those new to this place spend the endless days and nights writing down what they remember of their lives, desperately clinging to every little feeling and memory they can still hold on to. And when they are finished, their precious documented memories are taken away and they are put to work in a seemingly ever expanding palace, catering to the whims of the masters. Some who died as infants, now trapped in an adult body, have no stories to tell but toil away all the same. The old and haggard are young again, the sick are healthy again. And all now live again, eternally, to serve the masters.

 

***

 

There is no time to keep track of, but Phil has been serving for many years when he first has a moment to himself. He spends it wondering how their twelve masters could possibly need so much, so often. His thoughts distract him, just enough for him to lose focus and collide with a body next to his. He is about to step away and refocus on his task when a voice interrupts him.

 

“It is not wise to think, Phil,” he hears, and turns to find a small woman, with dark hair and dark eyes, staring blankly at him. “Anyone could hear you,” she says again, but this time her mouth doesn’t open, her lips do not move, save for a small twitch in the corner, accompanied by a twinkle in her eye that was so rare amongst those around him.

 

She can evidently hear his confusion, for she just taps the side of her temple, before purposefully turning back to her own duties. He does not want this conversation to end; it is the first he has had in so very long that does not include instructions from the masters. But they move around day by day and he cannot recall a single time he has seen the same face more than once. It is a shame he did not think to ask for her name.

 

“Melinda,” the same voice echoes in his mind, but when he turns back to her direction, she’s nowhere to be found.

 

“Melinda”, he thinks to himself.

 

“Melinda”, he whispers, because needs to hear himself say it.

 

***

 

They take to meeting during every moment they can spare, in between their seemingly never ending tasks. She always makes contact first, a constant presence in his mind, their bond growing with each exchange.

 

There comes a point where their connection does not go unnoticed any longer. One moment he is strolling down a winding hallway and the next, he finds himself kneeling beside Melinda in a room he cannot recall having ever visited. The floors and walls are like marble, but the colour of fresh blood, and the ceiling seems to stretch on indefinitely. A single staircase spirals on and on, to a destination unknown, but the part that stands out the most are the twelve occupied thrones that loom above them.

 

“The masters,” Melinda’s voice alerts him, and he subconsciously edges closer to her, a sudden unexplainable fear running through him.

 

Twelve pairs of eyes are trained on them, and something tells Phil that staring back is not the correct procedure in this situation.

 

“You are here to serve. This connection between you is forbidden. It must not be,” says the first master, garbed in red, white and blue, a round shield the symbol of his power.

 

“You will be separated. Your memories will be taken again,” the third master adds, slamming his hammer down by his feet, shaking the ground beneath them.

 

Phil tries to protest and finds he cannot speak, and Melinda appears to be the very same way. He feels a pain, worse than his first death he would say, if he could even remember how that went down. The room begins to tremor, more severely than the hammer strike and then a light engulfs them.

\-      _i said remember this moment, in the back of my mind     -_

 

***

 

The two once mortals lay motionless on the ground as their masters remain frozen in their thrones, staring defiantly at their former leaders.

 

“You have been allowed to live unsupervised with unlimited power for too long. You were assigned to watch over the souls of the dead, not punish them with eternal servitude for past crimes. Separating two whose souls are bonded is against our laws. You must be punished for your misdeeds.”

 

This was the beginning of the end.

 

“They lived an immortal life here, free from death and disease. Find your destiny in this life means re-entering the human one. We were just trying to protect them.”

 

“That was not your choice to make.”

 

The end of their beginning.

 

“A mortal life you will live, until they two meet again. If they find love, you will all die and be reborn, over and over until the day the world itself perishes. Only when cities fall and humanity ceases to exist you will be freed from this punishment.”

 

And so the masters are sent back to the mortal realm, for the first time in what they can only assume is an eternity.

 

 _-_       _we were the kings and the queens     -_

 

 **two** the knights stood vigil around a stone table, heads bowed east towards the rising sun

 

The first chapter of their second lives on earth begin like this:

 

There was a kingdom called Camelot; their king ruled with an iron fist and was wary of all magic and sorcery. Their prince was loud and arrogant; the blonde buffoon some of the maids and stewards called him, though always behind his back and wary of any prying ears.

 

His name was Arthur, but those closest to him called him Thor.

 

***

 

For one man, a royal one at that, Thor attracted much trouble. A gifted swordsman, he diligently trained and worked hard for his skill, but arrogantly thought himself undefeatable. His closest confidante was his father’s ward, Loki, despite their somewhat rocky relationship. After all, they were raised just like brothers.

 

At the end of the day, Thor was brave, and Thor was reckless. There were some that thought Thor was an idiot. But he was the only one who remembered. His first life. His life as a servant, and then as a master. The misdeed that cast them back into the mortal realm. His brother, Loki, locked away in their world, but free to live alongside him here. Perhaps those that condemned to this earth were not so cruel after all. But the loss of one’s memories is cruel, he realises this now, seeing his brother, seeing his friends, his fellow knights. He wonders why they do not remember. Steve and Sam and James spar with him, now with swords and lances instead of shields and hammers, but he knows they don’t remember the past.

 

He wonders if they ever will.

 

He does not forget the promise their elders made when they sent him here. And so he waits for the inevitable.

 

***

 

In his eighteenth year, he makes a new acquaintance.

 

Melinda has arrived in Camelot as an apprentice to their court physician, and he knows this spells trouble. She is nice enough to be around, but she responds to him in the same manner as Loki, jabs and jibes at every opportunity. She constantly lurks around him, and unbeknownst to her, he does the same.

 

Even as time goes by and the world doesn’t crumble before his very eyes, he cannot rest. He knows that each day that passes only leads them closer to an event that they cannot prevent, but it does not mean he will not try.

 

And so he and Melinda begrudgingly grow to be great friends. He saves her life, she saves his. They face dangers he has not seen in his very long life, battling monsters and witches and warlocks. Together the fight to defend Camelot.

 

***

 

Thor spends several weeks locked in chambers after an attack by an assassin from a neighbouring kingdom. He does not know why the royal family is such a favoured target for killers; he spends several days in a moon’s turn fighting them off.

 

Loki keeps him company during his confinement, though he suspects it is mostly to mock the fact he cannot leave his rooms. Melinda drops by several teams to deliver tonics and ointments for his wounds, and he senses something different about her halfway through his recovery.

 

She gives him a real, genuine smile as she leaves, not the usual amused smirk at his expense. And so he spends the following days camped in an armchair by his window, peeking from behind the curtains down at the courtyard, hoping to catch the reason her mood had changed so suddenly.

 

His heart plummets when he sees it.

 

There is knight; Thor can tell from his armour and shield, speaking with her. Even though the man’s back is turned, he can see the faint dusting of pink across Melinda’s cheeks as she accepts a bunch of wilting wild flowers from him.

 

This knight is Phil and his arrival means the end of them.

 

***

 

He realises his selfishness as he strives to keep them apart as much as he possibly can. Sir Phillip becomes one of his trusted advisors, and he has the Court Physician sending Melinda off on meaningless errands to keep her away before their relationship can grow any more. But it is

this distraction from more important matters that really seals his fate.

 

***

 

Phil, as he told Melinda to call him, steals away to the forest with her, and they spend hours by the lake, barefoot and searching for pebbles to skip along the surface of the water. They do not fall in love lakeside, but they do grow closer, the inevitability of their bond drawing them together.

 

Thor watches from a distance, and the sense of foreboding doom that has been plaguing him since he found the soulmates reunited increases tenfold.

 

He stumbles back to home to the castle to find it under siege and his father slain.

 

It seems Loki never did change.

 

***

 

The threat of an impending war against his brother seems to be the distraction required to separate the two, as Thor and his company spend days upon days seeking shelter from Loki’s forces. The time for battle plans and strategies is now, and Thor’s most trusted knights are beside him in his moment of greatest peril.

 

It seems foolish to try and fight against an army with a dozen knights, but Melinda always appears to have a few tricks up her sleeve. No one is really sure how she does it, but they survive so much longer than is expected.

 

While the other knights sit around the great stone table they had unearthed in their current stronghold, Phil and Melinda have escaped through to explore the twisted towers that loomed high above.

 

Together they soak in the moonlight, sitting amongst the dust and cobwebs of this long abandoned castle, and think about this life they have led, and the brevity of the time they have spent together.

 

“I feel a connection with you. I have since the moment we first met. When I asked you for directions at the stables and startled you so much you magically flung horse dung towards me,” he confesses.

 

She does not say anything in response, but simply raises a hand to gently touch his cheek, and the two are lost in the gaze of one another. So lost, they do not look to the sky and see the light of the stars dimming one by one.

 

***

 

In this life, Phil is the first to go.

 

Stabbed through the heart by a scepter wielded by Loki himself, not even the most powerful of magic could bring him back to them. Melinda feels as though she too has been ripped apart; the pain she felt should not be so physical.

 

Thor sees the end coming before it does, and moments later, he too is gone.

 

***

 

There is no time for mourning, as the knights heave the bodies of their falling comrades and king back to their dilapidated fortress. There is no chance of them winning now; not with their leader killed and their greatest weapon in a catatonic state. And so they stand together around their round table, and hope to see another day.

 

 _-_       _you held your head like a hero, on a history book page_ _-_

 

 **three**      sailing the seas and crossing oceans, heading for the new world

 

Their last lives ended with a battle, but in this new world they are the dangers

 

Phillip Coulson is born in a small village by the seaport. To the rest of the world his father is a scholar and navigational expert, out at sea many months of the year, assisting in mapping out new found lands and trading with other towns along the shore. In reality he is part of a navigational team searching for new lands to invade, towns to pillage and plunder to advance their own. Their neighbours only see a side of his mother that spends her days selling spices and dried meats at the markets and her early evenings salting the catch of the day. Even as a child Phil sees his mother staying up into the wee hours of the night, a dull yellow light showing from beneath the crack of her door. He sees the strange letters she receives by all sorts of birds throughout the year.

 

He knows that they are part of something bigger.

 

Something dangerous.

 

And he is observant enough to realise that he is not the only who has noticed the peculiarities about his parents less than regular activities. Steve, the scrawny neighbourhood boy spends his days loitering around their stalls, sketching all that passed by; a little girl in a tattered dress, a bearded old man smoking a cigar, a seagull looking to terrorize children playing in the sand. When his nose is not buried inside his sketchbook, smudged with dark stains, he is incessantly asking questions about Phil’s life and his parent’s lives. At first Steve is an annoyance, but as time goes on, Phil realises that they make better friends than adversaries.

 

***

 

When they are thirteen, Steve and Phil manage to weasel themselves into low paying positions as deckhands on a magnificent vessel, amongst dozens of other young boys. Phil’s father passed four years prior, and since then, both boys have learnt more and more about the man’s business than before. The stories they heard about adventures out at sea and life upon a ship painted quite a different picture about the daily ongoings as a deckhand.

 

***

 

They spend years moving up through the ranks, visiting new lands and learning new skills. Days fly by and before they know it, they are working directly under the captain, a sour faced old man who smoked a wooden pipe and liked nothing more than lounging on the deck for hours at a time. They are twenty two when the ship docks back home for the first time. Also for the first time, Steve now stands taller than Phil, the years of hard labour on the ship clearly agreeing with him. And the moment they are back on dry land, they head for their town to visit Phil’s mother’s burial site.

 

It is there they are first approached by an odd man with an eye patch who offers them the opportunity to captain their own ship. The man has odd requests and even odder instructions and Phil can sense that they are finally delving into the ravenous trenches, like his mother and father before him. They are assisting their great nation, defending their land from dangers of the savages that dwelled on the far sides of the sea.

 

They both accept but Steve is spooked and refuses to explain to Phil why the appearance of such a man frightened him so, but Phil can see the haunted look in his eyes and does not pry.

 

Steve’s behaviour only grows stranger, his first day as Steven Rogers, Captain, when he is introduced to their new shipmate, Thor. Phil trusts his old friend, he really does, but not enough to believe him when he says that he and Thor had not been earlier acquainted. It helps that Steve is a particularly poor liar, and Phil cannot remember having ever met Thor when he was younger, so he does not have an explanation for why the pair appear to know one another so well. They try to hide it, but their elation in seeing one another is clear, especially to someone like Phil, who has always been very observant.

 

***

 

They travel to foreign lands and leave trails of bodies in their wake, returning home with gold and jewels and more riches than their people can believe. When their deck hands are loading their newfound cargo onto their ship, Phil is honestly surprised that they have yet to sink the boat with all the weight.

 

They pillage and plunder and all kill those in their way, feeling nothing of it. And when they have cleared out all the native’s belongings, they move along, filling their chests with enough treasures to build a hundred castles back home. Life out at sea is not easy, but Phil does not think the lives of these natures that they essentially murder are any easier.

 

They all worry about their actions - he knows because the crew communicate well with one another. He sees the worried looks on Steve and Thor’s faces, but this is their job, and eliminating the problem before it grows is a better for their people than waiting for the savages from other lands to invade their homes and attack them.

 

It was for the good of their people.

 

Somehow nothing he said appeared to be able to justify their misgivings.

 

 _-_       _you knew our lives would never be the same_       _-_

 

***

 

Their next voyage heads out mid-Spring, and they travel further than they have ever been before. They have a larger fleet, a larger ship, a larger crew, and their eyes set on a larger prize. But nothing really ever goes to plan for them; Steve and Thor know that better than the rest of them.

 

When they ground their ships on the shore, they begin their travel inland on foot, rifles pointing into the darkness. The villages they pass by have been deserted, houses emptied in a rush, leaving behind belongings, family dinners half eaten. They lower their weapons as the creep about, finally having the freedom to explore without the hostility of angry natives to attack them. There are wooden dolls, crudely carved, in some houses and makeshift bassinets in others.

 

Sometimes he forgets that all men from from children, and all are born from mothers. He thinks they may have killed children in their past ventures, not even looking before attacking, stepping over the broken bodies without a care later.

 

It is probably too late to realise their mistakes.

 

***

 

They are brought before the ruler of this land, outnumbered by the sheer forces and their reluctance to hurt them after truly feeling sorry for their misgivings. Unlike them, their captors are kind and forgiving, and eager to learn about the world outside their own.

 

The emperor had many sons, but his daughter was the pearl of his world, and it was by her own request that she be allowed to join the foreigners and see their lands.

 

Phil never learnt her name, but he did not need it to know she was the most precious treasure to ever travel aboard their ship.

 

***

 

The journey home is more than two seasons long, and Phil neglects many of his duties in order to spend time with the Princess, the only one of her envoy who could speak a little of their language. They communicated through paintings in books and she learnt a little more of their words as the days went on.

 

“You are so beautiful, but like an oyster, even more beautiful within,” he tells her often, but she does not understand his words, and ignores him in favour of feverishly combing through all the books they held.

 

In the evenings, she dines with him and the Captain’s closest crew, including Thor, who watches them warily. Until he is distracted by the giggling maids who had accompanied the Princess on her travels.

 

***

 

And then, almost inexplicably, just days before they are due to arrive back home, the Princess develops a cough. Her ladies fuss about her, but she does not pay her ailing any mind, and continues to pore over writings and maps, desperate to learn more about the land they were so close to approaching.

 

She is bedridden within the day, and her coughs stained her handkerchiefs red.

 

Phil thought that maybe he was being punished for the horrible things they had done before a sudden change of heart, taking away the life of a woman he thinks he might love, before he can say it to her in a way that she can understand it.

 

 _-_       _i’m not afraid_       _-_

 

He steals her last breath, showing her in her dying moment just how he felt about her, and then she passes, Not hours later, two of her maids are found collapsed on the lower decks. Her entire entourage crumbles before the crew’s eyes, and they think it is likely they are not strong against the diseases on the sea.

 

Until, Phil too falls.

 

Steve and Thor sit at his bedside, and as he slips into an eternal darkness, he thinks he hears them tell him that they are sorry.

 

***

 

Steve is the last to go in this life; sitting in his Captain’s cabin, waiting for the flames to encase the ship. It would soon fall to the bottom of the ocean, to be forgotten forever.

 

It never docks again.

 

 **four**      shattered glass, fragments of the once whole, faded behind smoke

 

A plague took them in another time, but the worst plagues died out many years ago.

 

Melinda has wanted to save the world since she was five years old and sat outside in the waiting room at the hospital where her mother worked. She sat quietly with her hands folded as she was taught, and waited and waited until her mother's latest emergency was resolved. Two nurses in pretty pink scrubs came out and checked on her and told her that "Mommy is saving someone's life. A little girl just like you," and that is the moment she decides she wants to save little girls too. Little boys as well.

She wanted to save whoever would need and even those who thought they did not.

***

She does not end up a surgeon like her mother.  Instead she studies a plethora of different subjects until she finds her true passion in biochemistry and pharmaceuticals. It is saving people like she dreamed of but through other means. Her mother tries to pull strings to get her a high profile starter job at a lab with a reputation, but she has no intention of riding on her mother’s coat tails and rejects any help despite the “good intention”.

 

And so she takes a part time job scrubbing glassware and tidying around while in the middle of her undergraduate degree, at a small lab in the scarier part of town, owned by one Dr. Bruce Banner. He was a guest lecturer earlier in the year and had mentioned doing research in a privately owned laboratory. And so she plucked up the courage and asked if he was in the need of any assistants.

 

He is a nice enough man, but the broken beakers and test tubes tell her that either he is extremely clumsy, or probably has anger management issues.

 

Still, it does not pay too badly and gives her some time away from home. Scrubbing dirty lab equipment is surprisingly relaxing and gives her the peace and quiet needed to ponder the work they did in the lab back at the university.

 

It is not always quiet though; the doctors office is next door and she can sometimes hear him discussing things with other men who she assume to be colleagues or friends. She mostly ignored their conversations, after having listened in once and picked up on a strange debate about the apocalypse and souls and gods. She was not going to judge the man for the hobbies he partook in outside of work.

 

***

 

She finally meets Dr. Banner’s constant companions four months into working for him. There had been an awful spill earlier in the day by one of the full time She is scrubbing down the bench tops with bleach when the door opens and they wander in, lead by Dr. Banner himself. At first glance she finds it exceedingly odd that the two men standing by the doorway even know her boss, let alone are such good buddies with him.

 

Both blonde and looking like they spent their days at the gym, they slowly step around the benches, eyes scanning around the room. One approaches the drying rack and picks up a beaker as if to inspect it, only to have it slip from his hands and break with a loud smash against the floor.

 

“I am so sorry,” he says, voice loud and booming enough to make the room vibrate.

 

“Doesn't matter,” Dr.Banner says shrugging, then clapping the guy on the shoulder. “I break at least a dozen each week.”

 

Well that certainly explained it.

 

***

 

This time, not even the strength and strategy of the three former masters can keep them apart after they meet.

 

***

 

After she completes her PhD, she starts doing further research at a hospital laboratory. Dr. Banner repeats that he is sorry to see her go and asks if he cannot convince her to stay and work with him. He offers all kinds of perks but she still declines, wanting a change of environment after the past few years. She still winds up seeing him often; he takes it upon him to drop by on her at the hospital to see how she is doing. She thinks that it is sweet of him; that he still sees himself as her mentor even after all this time.

 

It is a year into working at the hospital that she meets Phil. He is a police officer and a frequent flyer in the emergency room, either with scrapes and bruises of his own or accompanying an injured member of his team. Two of his team mates turn out to be Dr. Banner’s friend strong but clearly clumsy friends. They always greet her enthusiastically if they see her and she finds herself having more people she can call friends than she ever imagined.

 

She and Phil bump into one another at the cafeteria, and the scene stirs up something within her- a heavy sense of déjà vu, like it has happened before but no matter how hard she goes through her memories, she cannot recall having met the man before.

 

She does not ask him if he feels the same thing.

 

She can tell that he does. She can see from the look in his eyes.

 

***

 

In this life, their time together is short.

 

They fall fast, and they fall hard. One moment they are strangers in a cafeteria, accidentally knocking elbows and the next they are hand in hand, fingers entwined, confessing their closest secrets to one another.

 

The minutes they spend together turn to hours and then to days and after only weeks it feels like they have known one another their entire lives.

 

Or more.

 

Their connection was strange, and it was sudden, but it was more real than anything they had ever felt before.

 

And that was more than enough.

 

***

 

In this life they go out in a bang.

 

Loud and explosive and the city comes down with them. Two chemicals accidentally coming into contact in a lab.

 

Nobody saw it coming.

 

And the three who did had no time to react before they were dead once more.

 

 _-_       _it was the end of a decade, but the start of an age_       _-_

 

 **five**      silence was inviting, silence was peace, silence was unknown, silence would cease

 

When man first walked on the moon, it was the greatest achievement made, leagues ahead of any other. No one would know that less than a century later it would be a frequent occurrence; teams of scientists, astronauts and researchers rocketing off past the stratosphere, heading for the stars.

 

The latest expedition, to complete a new state of the art space station paid for by Stark Industries, is the talk of the town. All those in related fields are excited about the prospect of new discoveries and furthering technology; as are those with a keen interest in science, but the majority of the world joins in on the hype when Tony Stark announces that he will joining the team and taking his first trip into space.

 

In the opinion of some experts, Stark is crazy for handpicking his own expedition members and insane for insisting in participating. Some even said that the whole thing was one big publicity stunt, to promote Stark Industries and their brand.

Stark Industries declined to respond.

 

(Tony made several choice remarks; Pepper had them all censored before they went to press.)

 

***

 

They are a team of fourteen, seven already on the ostentatiously named “Stark Station”, preparing for the completion of the greatest advance in modern technology for the year; the largest space station erected in history. Six are to join the rest of their team, along with Mr. Stark, to deliver the final part.

 

When complete, it will make its mark.

 

***

 

“Tony, you can’t pick Phil for your expedition; Melinda is up at the station already and you know what will happen if we let them meet,” Steve says through clenched teeth, not so gently slamming his palm down on Tony’s pretentious marble desk.

 

“He is right Stark, I have seen it happen time and time again,” Thor adds, heavily sitting down in one of the office chairs, struggling to hold is frustration in.

 

“Why should we work so hard to separate them? Fate is going to intervene and make sure they end up together anyway,” Tony responds, twirling a pen and rocking dangerously back on his chair with the nonchalance only he could pull off. “They will get together, yada yada, You will all die, blah blah blah.”

 

“Tony, you can’t take this so lightly. Thor has already had to watch us die three times over.” Steve argues, straightening up to his full height, using as much command in his voice as possible.

 

“And the sooner you accept that nothing we do is going to change that, the quicker we can get this over with. Dear old Peggy set the terms, and you of all people should remember how she is.”

 

And remember Steve did.

 

***

 

Tony spends a full day mocking Steve when everything is smooth sailing and the fourteen of them are up at the Stark Station, meandering around, making sure that all parts are running without problems. Life up among the stars is not as glamorous as anyone would imagine, and the days roll endlessly by. But Steve can only shake his head and remind him that the death business only happens after the two reconnect.

 

Steve, Thor and Bruce try their best to keep Phil and Melinda apart, but Tony sits back and just watches as the two continue to gravitate (he laughed at his own joke for a full minute) towards one another. He would not want anyone to separate him and Pepper even if it meant the end of the world. Maybe he was a little cynical for thinking that but he honestly did not care about this death business, as long as everyone else was going down as well.

 

He has completed his dream of going to space anyway. Crossed it off his bucket list. To be fair, there is not much he has not done in his lifetime. Dying in space however, that would be something new. More exciting then being slaughtered by an army or dying from the plague or even in an accidental explosion.

 

He has always wanted to go to space.

 

 _-_       _all the years that we stood there on the sidelines, wishing for right now_ _-_

 

***

 

“You know, the stars don’t really look any brighter from up here,” Phil says, pointing out into the abyss. He and Melinda are sitting in one of the viewing docks, her fingers dancing across the glass, pointing out the constellations. “I do recall having heard someone once mention something about the only light in the darkness.”

 

She scoffs. “How poetic.”

 

“It is though, it isn’t it. Without the stars, it would just be nothing up here. Though be fair the someone was the creep stalking my ex-girlfriend so maybe he isn't the best person to be borrowing lines from.”

 

“You think?”

 

 _-_       _all the kingdom lights shined just for me and you_ _-_

 

***

 

The thing about Phil and Melinda meeting and reestablishing their bond to a point where it acts like a catalyst for their world as they know it to end, is that _when_ it happens cannot be predicted.

 

 _How_ on the other hand, is not so hard for them to guess.

 

“We’re not making in back home alive are we?”

 

“No, but it’s not so bad. This is a beautiful place as any to die, isn't it?”

 

***

 

And it is.

 

There is no big bang, no panic.

 

Most of their team do not even realise as it is happening. Something had failed in the life support systems. A freak accident; not a flaw in design nor an issue with manufacturing. Tony sits in the bay, and disables the alarms before they can alert anyone else.

 

And when the oxygen runs out, they cannot breathe any longer, and it’s scary and uncomfortable, but there is no time to react. All they can do is lie there and watch the stars fade to black.

 

All is silent, and nobody can hear the screams.

 

 _-_       _i said remember this feeling_       _-_

 

 **six**      they endeavoured night and day, seeking the five rings that spelled their glory

 

Phil is only seven years old when his Judo instructor tells his parents that he has the potential to be a champion in his sport. He does not notice it at first, but he spends more and more time at the studio, an extra fifteen minutes here and there, and then another day per week. By the time he is eleven, he trains four days in a week after school, and studies hard to keep his grades up. His parents are adamant that he does not ignore school in favour of sports, because it never hurt to have a back-up plan.

 

Despite their insistence that school remains a priority, they do not have a problem with uprooting their lives in Wisconsin and moving all the way west to California, where one of the largest training facilities for talented young athletes is located.

 

In this life, he and Melinda meet and twelve years old.

 

They train together under the same coach, and spend days on end with one another. Surprisingly, it does not draw them together any faster than one would imagine.

 

***

 

Melinda has been at the training facility since she was nine. Her mother was a former champion for the Republic of China; she was born and bred to follow in the woman’s footsteps. When she and Phil have known one another for two weeks, she introduces him to her best friend Clint, an aspiring archer who could hit a bullseye with his eyes closed. Clint adopts this panicked look on his face as he slowly extends a hand for Phil to shake, and Phil wonders if the younger boy maybe feels threatened that he’s here to steal Melinda away from him.

 

They can all be friends, can’t they?

 

***

 

There are a plethora of kids here training for different sports, coming from different backgrounds and in some cases, different countries. Phil’s speculation that Clint is jealous of his friendship with Melinda fizzles out when Clint begins to spend more time with another group of boys. He wonders why the five of them spend so much time watching Melinda and watching him, but if Clint is friends with them, they can’t be bad guys. And deep down he knows that everyone here deserves to be here.

 

They spend time alternating between learning english and math and geography and science in little classrooms, and honing their skills in their respective fields. Phil and Melinda don’t get to spar with one another during training times, but they do take the time to train together on their own free time.

 

Sparring with Melinda is like a breath of fresh air. He can seldom predict her next move, but she never appears to have the same issue with him. She manages to pin him eight times out of ten, but never gloats, only extends a hand to help him back up before they go down for another round.

 

In the mornings they take runs together to keep up with their cardio and endurance. Steve, the pentathlete and a buddy of his share the track with them, but he easily laps them, followed not so closely behind by his friend. At times they meet up with Clint in the gym to do weight training, when he wasn’t out at the archery range firing arrow after arrow at the battered targets.  They lift weights and bench press and look away when Thor waltzes and begins putting them all to shame.

 

***

 

“Don’t you think the world should have ended by now?” Tony wonders one afternoon, lazing about on the end of his bed in his private dorm. Bruce is dozing, curled around one large pillow, clearly having been bored by Tony.

 

“In case you haven’t noticed Tony, we’re all teenagers. Maybe they’re not “bonded” yet,” Steve supplies offhandedly while engaged in an arm wrestling match with Thor.

 

“This fate thing sure seems oddly specific,” Clint drawls, and they all turn surprised, not even aware that he was awake. He was sprawled on a rug by the bed, not moving and barely appearing to be breathing.

 

“It sure does.”

 

***

 

Together, they travel to tournaments and competitions around the nation and then eventually around the world. They visit new countries and try all the local food and see all the sights there are to be seen.

 

Phil’s favourite place is a little town in Argentina, where he falls in love with the regional cuisines.

 

Melinda tells herself that she will never forget Italy and the destinations they visit there. (She has photos; one in particular shows Phil “leaning” against the leaning tower of Pisa.)

 

Together they create new memories, and strengthen the relationship between them.

 

The end inches closer but they are not quite there yet.

 

***

 

The United States has a greater team for the Olympic Games for the next year than any year before now.

 

Phil is nineteen and Melinda seventeen the day they board the flight that will take them to their very first Olympics.

 

But their story did not end that day.

 

***

 

\-      _the time we stood with our shaking hands, the crowds in stands went wild     -_

 

 

They march in the opening ceremony together and wave at the cameras, and they all applaud afterwards for Steve, who had the opportunity to carry the flag for the team. He was quote “all american beefcake” unquote, according to Tony, who says Steve was the easiest for the marketing team to promote as America’s golden boy.

 

Clint just misses out on a podium position but he's only sixteen and there's always the next games in four years when he’s mastered his skills even further for him to show the world just how great an archer he is.

 

He is not the only athlete from their training camp to suffer agonising defeat. In fact, the tabloids begin called them cursed after each and every one of them fail to make the podium or in some cases fail to make the finals.

 

“We kind of are cursed,” Clint mumbles to Steve who shushes and warns him against saying these kinds of things out in the open.

 

Phil doesn't disagree that they have suffered an unfortunate bout of bad luck here though.

 

***

 

And so they survive these games, and the journey home, but the peace does not hold.

 

When Clint sees Melinda gives Phil a kiss on the cheek one day after a sparring session, he flees the room, trailed by the bewildered looks of the brand new couple.

 

Phil figures maybe Clint is jealous for real this time.

 

Melinda figures Phil’s brain has been addled from all the times she's tackled him down onto the mats, and she tells him this.

 

They spend their last moments of this life laughing together.

 

No one has time to escape when a sinkhole collapses their training centre.

 

In his final moment of this life, Clint wonders if maybe the world will survive with them gone.

 

He hopes the answer is yes.

 

 **seven** lights danced about them, but none did outshine them, the stars upon a sky painted red

 

Making movies is not just about entertaining their audiences and creating an artistic statement. Nor is it to showcase the talented actors on their payrolls. And honestly, they really could not care less about the bad reviews from “acclaimed” critics, random hacks who thought they could spout utter nonsense about the film's that failed to cater to their particular tastes. No, it was to cut a trailer enticing enough that as many people buy tickets to see the film in the cinema as possible and then purchase all miscellaneous memorabilia related to the franchise.

 

Entertainment is a business.

 

It's the first real lesson Natasha Romanoff is taught in this lifetime, at only seven years old, the memories of half a dozen lives before crammed inside her little head. After stumbling in her dance routine and her voice cracking during a song, not to mention accidentally letting her accent slip through when reciting lines, she is sure the coveted yet minor role in the show will be lost to her. And yet she is chosen above all the other little girls and she realises why the casting director pats her on the cheek and tells her she has the right face for the part.

 

Entertainment is a business. And those who made for bad business, would not be permitted to stay.

 

***

 

As it turns out, she has the right face for many roles as she grows up, and she takes them all on, hoping to bump into her old friends along the way. Surprisingly, she happens upon Melinda first. They are cast as extras in a fifth grade classroom and Natasha makes a point to befriend her between takes.

 

She does not have to pretend to like the girl that was a catalyst for their banishment to earth, because she genuinely does. They have so many things in common; Natasha has her dancing and Melinda has her figure skating, they both enjoy martial arts and have aims to perform their own stunts when they are older. They speak different languages and both share a disdain for the behaviours of their other cast members. They become friends quickly, and Melinda is at the same time nothing like she was before, yet having not changed a single bit.

 

The world works in strange ways and even an eternity as a master cannot explain it for her.

 

***

 

Natasha remembers her deaths as clearly as if they had happened yesterday, and contemplates the actions that lead them to this life. She has found Clint again and is more than overjoyed to see him once more. He feels the same way and gives her a big hug on the red carpet where they see one another again for the first time in a lifetime.

 

The light of the cameras flash in their faces and she knows that they will undoubtedly make the front page of trashy magazines by morning. They are both here for a premiere for a new film starring both Clint and Melinda. It was a young adult romance that had all the drama and passion to keep audiences in their seats. At least that was what the reviews said. Natasha had come here expecting, even hoping to see him, but she had not anticipated the overly animated welcome.

 

She and Clint meet often after the first time, and search for any signs of Phil in the entertainment industry. Their twin sighs of relief when they fail to come up with any are only to comfort one another. In their own minds they know that the man will show up in their lives in one way or another.

 

***

 

And show up he does.

 

And he is not the only one to. In fact, their entire group, the masters, unite once more on the set of Hollywood’s hottest movie of the year. And that is the first sign that the movie might not make it past production. The second is the late running consultant that does not turn up until two weeks into shooting.

 

Phil Coulson.

 

He’s a virtually unknown author with one published book. Natasha can not calculate the odds of this happening in reality; that their director chose this one book to be inspired by and then hired the group of them.

 

And in this world, anything can be explained away with fate.

 

***

 

“And when the sun sets for the last time, will you remember me?”

 

Phil lets out a loud round of applause and cheering as Melinda delivers her final line, to which she responds with an eyeroll.

 

“I take it from your enthusiastic response that I was okay?” she asks, scanning her script once more before dropping it onto the coffee table between them.

 

“Okay? You were brilliant. Your voice, it was exactly how I pictured the character in my mind. It’s almost like fate,” He goes on, eyes shining with excitement, and even she has to crack a smile at his eagerness to demonstrate approval.

 

This is the final scene left to shoot, and then the movie is off to post production for the guys there to work their magic. Their project will be over by tomorrow and Melinda will be off to her next television appearance and Phil back to his tiny New York apartment to try and write another novel.

 

He thinks it’s the end. But she surprises him. For a moment, he thinks that she always does, but it is an odd thought to have, because they have known one another for only months.

 

“We should grab a drink together after all this is done.”

 

He grins.

 

“I’d like that.”

 

***

 

It becomes quite clear to Natasha that Tony and Steve are divided on their opinions how how they should deal with the dying and being reborn thing.

 

Tony projects only that he does not care, and that there is no point to try and change anything because nothing they do will have an impact anyway.

 

Steve says that he cannot stand idly by and let them die over and over. If there was a way to prevent the end of the world, would you not take action?

 

Natasha is just glad that the disagreement is only between them, and does not escalate any further.

 

For now.

 

***

 

In this lifetime they do not have to incessantly follow Phil and Melinda around to track their whereabouts; the rest of the world does it for them.

 

There are shots of the two visiting a local cafe after a morning at the gym.

 

Grainier ones of the bar they all visited just last night.

 

***

  
The theme of this movie is hope and legacy.

 

There is a grand premiere in Los Angeles, and crowds are as large as they have ever been as actor after actor make their appearance the see the film’s first screening. As Natasha exits her limousine, she is almost blinded by the lights.

 

The normally dim streetlights are unusually bright.

 

The flashes from the cameras don’t seem to end.

 

Even the moon is glowing with more presence than usual.

 

But it is the smiles of Hollywood’s newest celebrity couple as they confirm their relationship to the media that holds her attention.

 

She feels a hand on her shoulder and turns to see Steve, an expression upon his face that she is sure she mirrors.

 

***

 

 _-_       _can you take a moment, and promise me this. that you’ll stand by me forever_       _-_

 

The first quake has them all laughing it off; it really was not uncommon in California.

 

The second has some beginning to worry.

 

And as the characters on the silver screen deliver their final lines, the theatre begins to fall around them.

 

The film is a roaring success, not that those who played a part will ever know. They had been at the epicentre of a terrible disaster.

 

The irony is that they had spent so much time to create a movie inspiring hope, and yet in their final moments, all hope was taken from them.

 

 **eight**      skies were blue as they soared above the clouds

 

They do not end up meeting in every lifetime. Sometimes other forces drive them apart before they are able. They do die in every lifetime. Such was the life of a mortal on earth. But sometimes they make it all the way to the end of their natural lives. Sometimes they get to walk down the aisle together, raise their children together. But that only meant that they never truly loved one another.

 

The bond was always there.

 

No one else could affect it.

 

***

 

James “Rhodey”Rhodes and Sam Wilson have been what young school girls may call “frenemies” for the greater part of their lives. Their respective best friends Tony Stark and Steve Rogers had an even stranger relationship; good friends in one moment and ready to kill one another in the next.

 

Sam says it’s because Tony can be such a jackass about everything when he’s in a mood.

 

Rhodey thinks that Steve has to learn to back down from a fight sometimes. He knows that Tony likes to provoke people but deep down would never intentionally harm someone.

 

Bruce attests it to their high stress jobs, flying from city to city, never staying in one place for more than a day or two. Even in his calm, quiet voice, he admits that sometimes he wants to let his sudden rages out, but he tries his hardest to keep it contained.

 

Natasha is angry that she is the only one whose uniform consists of a skirt. That and if another randy passenger tries to grab at her, she’ll be too busy restraining the boys to beat the asshole up herself.

 

***

 

There are eight of them this time that know.

 

But even eight of them cannot prevent a meeting that cannot be predicted. This is the first time that none of them have come across either Melinda or Phil yet, and Tony is already hitting thirty-five.

 

They consider their options. The meeting could occur at the airport. Or even on a plane. They could be passengers.

 

They could have already met.

 

It takes both Sam and Thor to hold Steve back when he begins waxing poetics about how he has yet to plummet to his death in his many lifetimes.

 

***

 

They are right though.

 

This time, the bond forms without any of them knowing.

 

***

 

_Dear M,_

 

_I am sorry for the delayed reply. I have just completed a journey through Europe and did not receive your letter until I returned to my first hotel in France. I spent days sitting at a little cafe in Paris and thinking of you. I have attached photos from all the places I have visited since we last corresponded._

 

_I hope to hear from you soon._

 

_P._

 

_***_

 

_P,_

 

_You captured the beauty of the landscapes in ways I cannot bring myself to express in words. I see Paris many times in a year during my travels, and yet I have never felt the way I do about the city until seeing it as you did._

 

_Stay safe._

 

_M._

 

_***_

 

In this life, things are different.

 

She doesn’t know him as Phil and he knows no Melinda.

 

But the things they do know are enough to sustain a friendship across the globe for almost a decade.

 

He knows that she travels around, and she knows the same about him. He knows that she hates coffee, likes the tranquility of looking down upon water moving gently, and that she doesn’t speak much in person and prefers writing her thoughts down.

 

She knows that he is a little clumsy, from the stains that sometimes decorate the letters from him. She knows that the wanderlust within him forces him to journey around the world in search for adventure. She knows that at the end of the day, there is no place he would rather be than at his childhood kitchen, eating his mother’s homemade pie.

 

They know the little things about one another. It brings them together, these letters, sent with random old stamps from little post shops in different countries, hurriedly penned before either of them are moving on to their next destination.

 

It is these letters that comfort him on the anniversary of his parent’s deaths.

 

It is these letters that bring her ease when she finds the solitude too much to bear.

 

It is entirely an accident that began their communications, a postman having misdelivered her scathing letter meant for her mother to him, on the other side of town. He had decided on a witty reply, and there is not a that goes by where they do not sit and yearn for the words of the other.

 

And so her most precious belongings are the letters from him, and they are the only things he doesn’t leave behind when he moves on to a new city.

 

-      _i said remember this feeling, i passed the pictures around_ _-_

 

***

 

“Oh hell no,” are the first words out of Sam Wilson and James Rhodes’ mouths when they meet the new pilot they’ll be flying with.

 

“How could you let this happen Tony?” Steve says, and really he’s not wrong, but he’s not right either. Tony Stark was far too lazy a man to pay attention to who was getting hired for his airline - most big guys like him didn’t have to care. It was ridiculous of Steve to expect him to participate in their schemes to keep two people they had yet to meet separated.

 

Sam stands behind his best friend, but even he knows that there is nothing they can do but prepare for what is to come.

 

Melinda has transferred over to work for their airline.

 

She’s the new pilot.

 

***

 

Melinda in this lifetime is quieter, more stoic than in previous ones. She greets them with a nod and then proceeds to walk past them without a word. The only time they really hear her speak is when she is making announcements through to the cabin. And even then she only says the bare minimum.

 

Their crew is an eleven member team that cater to the needs of all the guests flying with them, even the particularly unreasonable ones. Thor and Bruce always work first class- the economy aisles are tight and both men had a tendency to knock things over when there wasn’t enough space for them to maneuver in. It has it’s perks, but they don’t involve entertaining Tony whenever the man is bored and decides to fly with them, instead of on his own private jet. He claims to enjoy the company of others, and that apparently doesn’t always include the strippers and exotic dancers on his own plane.  

 

Steve makes sure to keep a close eye on Melinda, and anyone that comes into contact with her.

 

Natasha thinks that it is a shame his efforts will go to waste.

 

***

 

One P. Coulson boards their flight one year and three months after Melinda begins working for Stark Airlines. He sits in row 37D, an aisle seat, and they are all sure that there is no way that he and Melinda can bump into one another. She’ll be off to a lounge to rest and then back on another flight within the day.

 

And he’ll hopefully be off on his merry way.

 

***

 

_P,_

 

_I will be in Paris for three hours on the second friday of next month. I know you are due to pass through. We should grab that drink that you’ve been talking about._

 

_M._

 

***

 

Natasha watches from the corner of her eye as Phil scribbles furiously away on a notepad. She can’t tell what he’s writing and that’s probably for the best.

 

***

 

_M,_

 

_This letter won’t reach you before I do. I hope to deliver it to you the moment we meet. I am flying to Paris as I write, and I can only imagine how the city will be with the both of us together. It feels like too soon, because I don’t even know your real name, or what you look like. But I know what matters, and what matters is that I love you._

 

_I hope you’ll return the sentiment._

_Phil_

 

***

 

“Oh hell no,” are the first words out of Sam Wilson and James Rhodes’ mouths when the plane begins to shake and plummets down towards the ocean.

 

_\-     hold on to spinning around, confetti falls to the ground may these memories break our fall     -_

 

 **nine** magic flowed through their veins and hung in the air like a thick morning mist

 

In this life, there is magic all around. From the moment each of them are born, strange yet incredible things happen that cannot be explained away. Like their first back on earth after what is now referred to them as “the incident”, there are monsters and witches and wizards. They have wands and spells and potions and a magical community to live among.

 

For the first time, they are not the only ones who are “different”.

 

Adding magic into the mix does not bode well; but those who have a more positive outlook on life consider it only another stepping stone in the path to the end. Those who were more cynical pondered the endless ways they could die from a magically produced ailment.

 

One of them, and we won’t go and point fingers, thinks it would be awfully interesting if they were to be eaten alive by a dragon.

 

One of them, and again, we won’t reveal his, er, their identity, resists the urge to sock the first in the jaw.

 

***

 

Wanda and Pietro Maximoff were twins in their first life, and it is only fitting that in this life where they remember, they do it together.

 

At age three Wanda can create red sparks with her fingers. Pietro favours using his uncontrollable magic to give himself short bursts of power, sending himself flying across the room.

 

Their muggle mother can only sit and watch these magical disasters unfold, with no way to control them. Their muggleborn father left long before they were born, disappearing without a trace, and the twins know nothing of him.

And so she keeps them inside and schools them herself in their small cottage, anxiously waiting for the letters that will come and take her children away from her, and send them off to a fancy castle in Scotland for “magic school”.

 

***

 

There are now ten of them, and they reconvene on the Hogwarts Express. They pass by several near empty carriages; one containing a freckled redhead and another boy with an oddly shaped scar, the pair almost drowned by the bushy hair of their female companion. Tony snorts when he sees the dark haired boy through the glass and mutters something about “the stupid chosen one”. Natasha shoves him none too gently away from the window because if Tony doesn't watch his mouth, someone is probably going attack him. And it might not even be her this time.

 

They divide themselves among two cars and make sure the door is sealed before they begin to share their stories of how their lives have been up to this point. There has not been a lifetime where they have all been together from such a young age.

 

Thor tells them how he almost missed out on joining them here; his father had wanted to send him to Durmstrang, but he had pleaded to be sent to Hogwarts instead. Thor ends up sorted into Gryffindor.

 

Likewise, Steve had almost ended up at Ilvermorny, if he had remained in America after the tragic death of his parents. Instead he was adopted by two British muggles, who haven’t stopped telling him that they knew he was special from the moment they saw him. Steve joins Thor as a member of Gryffindor house. Sam follows closely behind.

 

Tony has rich Pureblood lineage, and it really isn’t surprising at this point. Natasha thinks that it isn’t particularly fair that he’s the wealthy one in every lifetime, but Tony says that it’s only appropriate for someone of his breeding. Tony is separated from his best friends when he is placed in Ravenclaw, and Bruce and Rhodey wind up in Hufflepuff.

 

No one is particularly surprised when Natasha slinks into Slytherin House - Clint comments that the green goes well with her hair. He’s a little upset that they’re apart too - He likes the yellow of Hufflepuff House well enough, but it won’t be the same without Natasha. They’re not the only ones who are separated. Even Wanda and Pietro are placed in separate houses; Pietro becomes a proud member of Gryffindor, while Wanda begrudgingly joins Tony in Ravenclaw.

 

And it's a good thing too. Leaving Tony alone to harass Melinda in Ravenclaw Tower will only lead to a broken nose for him and bruised knuckles for her.

 

***

 

Tony loses points for Ravenclaw as quickly as Melinda and Wanda manage to gain them- their professor clearly doesn't find it amusing that he “added a little something extra” to his cauldron just to see what would happen.

 

Especially when the resulting explosion sends the entire class to the infirmary.

 

Melinda shoots him a dark glare from across the smoking lab- of course her potion with her precious partner Phil had been perfect.

 

***

 

They manage to survive a surprisingly long time in this world, given the catastrophic events that occur so often and the dangers of dark wizards, terrible spells spells, incurable maladies and terrifying monsters that seem to be oh so fond of attacking the school.

 

Steve somehow manages to have them steer away from all the disasters- the missing professor incident in first year; a giant muggle killing monster in the second and the chosen one’s crazy godfather ransacking the school in the third.

 

The world doesn't end in fourth year when Melinda and Phil attend the Yule ball together, dancing beneath the charmed snowflakes with ridiculous grins plastered upon their faces.

 

***

 

Against all odds, they all return to school in seventh year in one piece. Their headmaster was murdered and the greatest evil on the magical world is back in power and they can almost taste the war looming in the air.

 

***

 

Hogwarts castle is almost choking from the smoke and magic filling its halls. Wizards and witches and magical creatures of all shapes and sizes are fighting to the death.

 

Wanda knows that Phil and Melinda have been dating since the break between sixth and seventh year. She also sees the looks they exchange before they step up to defend their school and their beliefs. She knows the end is looming.

 

She doesn't feel it until Pietro falls.

 

His death is more painful than her own, only mere moments later.

 

 _-_       _i had the time of my life, fighting dragons with you_       _-_

 

In this world the good lose the war and evil wins.

 

In this world not forgiven are sins

 

In this world there’ll be hurt, there’ll be pain

 

In this world terror will reign.

 

 _\-     l_ _ong live, all the magic we made     -_

 

 **ten** after dark they met, crowding over plans in a darkened room

 

It’s a little bit funny, that up until now, they haven’t really been cast as the villains in their own story. Of course, what is the point of a story where one is rooting for the bad guys to take over the world and watch as it crumbles to pieces. Is that really a happy ending?

 

***

 

In this life, Phil and Melinda are neighbours. Not childhood friends turned childhood sweethearts who communicate through their bedroom windows which just happen to face one another. Not college students in neighbouring dorms accidentally stumbling into the other’s room after a drunken night out on the town. Not middle aged divorcees awkwardly flirting while watering the plants and mowing the lawn.

 

They are neighbours for only a day.

 

Two newborn children in adjacent cots at the hospital, born two hours apart.

 

Of course, this is not a connection that they ever make, an adorable coincidence that will make a wonderful bedtime story for their grandchildren one day.

 

The truth is that they never realise it happened.

 

The truth is that they do not meet again for another thirty years.

 

***

 

The paths they take in this life are so different.

 

She works as a private investigator, sneaking around town after dark to follow suspicious characters and gather evidence.

 

He is a mathematician, and spends his day surrounded by numbers, watching as the numbers in his own bank account drop.

 

They do not meet again until a letter arrives on their respective doorsteps.

 

An invitation.

 

***

 

To be honest, Melinda nearly ends up tossing the damn thing out, but the mystery intrigues her and the investigator within her can’t resist a good case.

 

Phil does throw his out, but it mysteriously reappears, this time on the desk in his study, and he realises that it probably shouldn’t be ignored.

 

***

 

There are thirteen of them, standing warily together in the middle of an abandoned factory in the dark.

 

“Isn’t this the part where you come out and announce why we’ve all been gathered here today?” one of the men shouts up at the ceiling. Melinda recognises the voice as coming from the man who had proudly introduced himself as “Clint Barton, the world's greatest marksman” when they had passed one another to enter the building. There is a dull thud as someone undoubtedly hits him to get him to smarten up and shut up.

 

“Aaww Nat, that's gonna bruise in the morning,” he whines, and it is immediately followed by another smack and a softer “oww” from Clint who Melinda feels a little sorry for now.

 

The lights in the warehouse suddenly turn on and a voice is broadcast from seemingly all around.

 

“Welcome to my secret lair, minions. The thirteen of you have been hand picked by me, myself and I to form the greatest band of thieves in history. I will remain anonymous through this proc-”

 

“Hey, dude, you sound just like Tony Stark,” yells Scott, who looks none too impressed with his surroundings.

 

“Err, who is this Tony Stark who speak of? I’ve never heard of him,” the voice responds, raising an octave in the process.

 

Steve can’t even bring himself to be annoyed at Tony any more for his harebrained schemes to bring the end of the world faster.

 

***

 

The fourteen of them, including Stark, take to meeting in odd places at odd hours to avoid detection. Scott figures this is how Tony gets rich in every lifetime, by stealing the money.

 

Their first job together is low stakes. A safety deposit box at a local bank that Stark knows contains several pieces of custom designed jewellery belonging to “an associate of his”. They pull it off without a hitch and each return home twenty thousand dollars richer.

 

After the first time, they each take on roles within the team. Tony calls himself “the Mastermind” and expects others to do the same. He designs their equipment and produces it with the assistance of Bruce and Phil, whose expertise at mathematics made for exact calculations. Sam and Rhodey are both former soldiers with connections across the globe and expert aims. Clint has a thousand trickshots up his sleeve and Natasha is a former gymnast for the Soviet Union. Wanda plays with the minds of people, manipulating them to her will, and Pietro is quite possibly the fastest person on earth.

 

And Melinda, she’s part of “The Muscle”. Steve and Thor make more of an entrance when they’re beating thugs up, but she can easily slip into a room undetected and have the occupants incapacitated before any of them have the opportunity to call out for help.

 

They’re a dream team of thieves and liars, out to take on the world together.

 

***

 

They quickly and quietly leave their day jobs; most of them have live so nondescript that those around them hardly notice as they slowly fade away from their lives altogether.

 

They hop from city to city, across all major countries, pulling off jobs here and there - always for their own personal gain. They steal priceless artifacts from museums and famous paintings from galleries and more diamonds than they could fill a canyon with.

 

They steal from wealthy individuals; pompous aristocrats who care little for anything but a high society lifestyle. They steal from businesses and banks and feel not a smidgen of remorse.

 

These are victimless crimes.

 

***

 

The thing is, their identities have managed to remain a secret even after all these years. Even with their very public appearances, mocking those who they had conned, no one knows their faces.

 

They are the common enemy for world leaders and businessmen alike.

 

Men and women shaking their fists in outrage at their actions.

 

 _-_       _and the cynics were outraged, screaming “this is absurd”     -_

 

They have something planned so insane that they might just pull it off. But they have grown cocky with all their successful heists. And that is what will lead to their downfall. They announce to the world their plans, and this time the world is ready for them.

 

***

 

You know, I used to spend my time crunching numbers,” Phil tells Melinda as they gear up for their big “performance”.

 

“I still beat people up. Occasionally.”

 

He looks at her as if she is the most amazing person on the planet.

 

***

 

 _-_ c _ause for a moment a band of thieves in ripped up jeans got to rule the world_       _-_

 

This is to be their hour of greatest triumph.

 

And it is.

 

But then the hour passes. They have climbed so much higher than they ever have before, but they end up falling further too.

 

The gunfire begins.

 

First bullets rain.

 

And then blood.

 

***

 

In this life they die side by side, leaving the world, leaving one another in the same way they first met.

 

They make the headlines the next day and the world rejoices that a great evil has been defeated.

 

 **eleven** colour was strewn about the room, toys discarded across the floor

Not every life is filled with drama. Not every lifetime has them on the run, or fighting a war, heading towards an untimely death. Sometimes their lives are normal. Sometimes nobody dies. But sometimes a quick death is better than the bond between two people slowly cracking but never managing to break.

 

***

 

“You have got to be kidding me,” is what Peter thinks, as he is led into the unfamiliar room, primary colors decorating the walls, the carpet soft beneath his covered feet. He of course cannot say it out loud. Three year olds tend not to be so eloquent with their speech and it would only freak out the adults around him. And so he giggles and babbles like expected as his mother plucks him up into an embrace and kisses him goodbye, before she deposits him into the arms of another.

 

He turns slowly; the curse of children having such big heads and small bodies, and finds himself face to face with Melinda May. He’s too small and can’t get down; shrieking and running away are not even options at this point, so he settles for the next best thing.

 

He scrunches up his face and begins to cry.

 

***

 

They are finally united in this life, their memories restored, but it’s still the worst situation they have ever been placed in.

 

There are simply no good ways for a group of three to four year olds to communicate stealthily, avoiding detection from the adults. Tony thinks that it is absolutely degrading as he sits cross legged on his little chair attempting to draw up master plans with red crayon during colouring time. Due to his lack of coordination, the plans look more like scribbles, which is probably a good thing.

 

The rest of the group have given up and are happily settling into the lifestyle of being a kid. Thor loves snack time and Bruce adores nap time. Clint and Natasha enjoy chasing one another around the little park at the back of the daycare.

 

And Steve, he takes the time to enjoy his life, without worrying about the future.

 

They’re kids, there really is nothing they can do.

 

***

 

Phil and Melinda met in college. This one really was a story to save to pass on to their descendants.

 

Melinda worked shifts at the coffee shop between classes, and Phil was a coffee addict. He came in several times a week and stayed for hours on the weekend, typing his assignments up on a laptop or reading a book in a quiet corner. There came a point in his final year that Melinda was convinced he would overdose on caffeine based on the amounts he was taking in daily. So she switched out his orders for decaf.

 

Three weeks in, he winds up falling asleep just before closing, and when she’s finished cleaning the place up, she wakes him and confesses her actions.

 

He isn’t angry and ends up finding the whole situation exceedingly amusing.

 

And that is how their relationship begins.

 

***

 

Fifteen years on and they have a successful business together. They have a lovely house with a white picket fence located in a friendly neighbourhood and are truly the envy of many. But the one thing they’re missing drives a bigger wedge between them than they can describe.

 

***

 

They are both only children. It meant that they never had to share their parents with anyone else. It also meant that sometimes, life got a little lonely.

 

They decide after getting married that they want to surround themselves with children.

 

They don't expect their dreams to come true through opening a daycare.

 

***

 

In this life they are broken, a single piece missing from the puzzle of their lives that prevents them from ever being complete.

 

In this life pieces begin falling away one by one.

 

Even as the twelve former masters leave the daycare and head on down different tracks in their lives, they are wary of the penny dropping in a moment they least expect.

 

It doesn't.

 

_\-     if god forbid fate should step in, and force us into a goodbye     -_

 

 

***

 

The daycare closes twenty years into their time together.

 

Their marriage lasts another three.

 

He moves away, and she remarries, but it's not the same.

 

In this life when they do pass on, they are wrinkled and gray.

 

But the most significant difference is that they are alone, only broken memories to link them back to one another.

 

It's not enough.

 

\-      _if you have children someday, when they point to the pictures, please tell them my name      -_

 

 **twelve** fires burned the lands the day the oceans dried; the day the earth died

 

The end is inevitable. We learn that from the beginning. You think about reaching it, the journey you will take on the way, but you can never truly be prepared for it happening. One moment everything is fine. And the next, all hell breaks loose.

 

***

 

Phil and Melinda remember in this lifetime. They don’t remember the pain and suffering they have been through together. They don’t remember all the times they’ve died and been reborn, all the lives they have lived.

 

They remember a feeling.

 

They remember a connection.

 

They know only that they need to be together, and this time, there is no one left to stop them.

 

***

 

Their world is dying.

 

It starts off slowly, as many things do.

 

Summers grow longer, temperatures rise a little, and the sea level sinks a little. Some plant species become extinct. Nothing that scientists had not already predicted would happen given the treatment of the earth by its inhabitants.

 

But then the temperatures continue to rise. Droughts become more frequent. Those in poorer nations are the first to go. But it doesn’t take long before they are joined by the rest of the world.

 

***

 

They are the only survivors, walking across valleys which were once oceans, unable to ignore the death and decay that surrounded them.

 

In this lifetime, they watch twelve allies perish before them.

 

In this lifetime, they are the last to go.

 

 **encore** seeing how things could be lets one appreciate how things are

 

His name is Phil, and her name is Melinda.

 

They meet during orientation at Shield’s Operations Academy.

 

Their lives are not easy.

 

There are monsters, and magic, and superheroes too.

 

They live as liars and thieves and still try to save the world.

 

There is dying, and coming back to life.

 

There is a promise; hope for a better day.

 

The ending to their story has not yet been written, but no matter the conclusion, it will live on.

 

 _-_       _one day we will be remembered_   _-_


End file.
